Toronto FC only just signed Victor Vazquez on Monday, but the marquee midfielder has long known this city would be a good fit for him.
The 30-year-old Spanish star, a former footballer of the year in Belgium, has been on the Reds’ radar for some time, so much so that Vazquez and his wife visited the city two years ago. A move to Toronto felt right at the time, he told the club’s website, but a deal was not reached.
But after a “really difficult” stay with Mexican top division side Cruz Azul, a club Vazquez joined in December 2015 but only represented 23 times, Vazquez can finally call Toronto home.
“Sometimes you have a bad year, bad moments,” Vazquez said. “We had it and that’s why we come to Toronto, because we had a really good feeling when they were coming to us two years ago. That’s why we’re here today, because we have this feeling that (everything) will go really well here and we will have good things in Toronto.”
Vazquez, who has already joined his new teammates at a training camp in Orlando, fills a gap at the creative midfield position that Toronto had long talked about beefing up.
“Victor developed in the Barcelona youth system, which is recognized worldwide,” TFC general manager Tim Bezbatchenko said in a release. “He is a creative player with experience playing in an attacking midfield role but also centrally, which gives us flexibility in our system.”
Vazquez will be added to the roster after receiving an international transfer certificate and his Canadian work permit. Toronto acquired the midfielder using targeted allocation money.
Vazquez spent five seasons with Club Brugge in the Belgian league, scoring 25 goals and assisting on 50 more in all competitions. He was named the professional player of the year after the 2014-15 season. The success didn’t carry over to Mexico, where he managed just one goal and one assist in a little more than a year.
The signing was Toronto’s second big piece of business in the last months, after the addition of former Liverpool defender Chris Mavinga in late January. Vazquez’s first impression of his Toronto FC teammates is similar to his initial take on the city itself: friendly, safe and helpful.
“When you feel that the first day, then you think that you are in the good way, in the right place to play football, to live, to be happy,” Vazquez said. “This is what they give me, the feeling the team gives me, coach, everyone from the club, trying to help us.”
Vazquez has followed the club recently, including its “amazing” run to the MLS Cup final last year, and hopes to repay the city’s early generosity by continuing that success.
“I’m not an individual player, I always like to play for the team, the strikers. I like to give assists. I like also to score goals if I can. But the most important is that I will give everything.”
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